PlanetDreamcast | Games | Reviews | MagForce Racing

MagForce Racing Page 2/2 A bit short of Mag-nificent - Review By Mad Carl Going down? Out of the box, MagForce Racing seems slow and more than a bit dull. However, once you beat all of the tracks and move onto the Class 2 races, things speed up considerably. Unlike food or other forms of entertainment, I don't think video games should be either a) an acquired taste or b) something that takes its time about getting to the chase. A racing game demands that the player be enthralled from the start of the first race. I was, quite frankly, bored. For a long time I was preparing to write a negative review -- then I reached Class 2 and things were faster and more fun. That's too bad. I suspect that in a great many ways, I am an average game consumer. If a game doesn't grab me out of the gate, I'm going to quit playing. If I hadn't been being paid to play MagForce Racing, I would have given up and never gotten to the fun part. One thing that didn't change with Class 2 was the AI. It was still missing in action just as it was in Class 1. I wish I could say that this got better with Class 3 or 4, but alas, it did not. The other racers just don't seem to be there. They almost always use their power ups in unintelligent ways. They never seem brutal enough on the course, and once they're behind you, they seem to accept their fate and stay put. The weapons are extremely weak, both in effect and appearance. The music sounds like something The Chemical Brothers might have come up with while goofing around. It's passable, but fitting music for a game whose genre seems to be required by law to use this manner of music. I think it would be more interesting to play a game like this with some really good classical music (say Mozart, or maybe Wagner at his angriest). The sound effects are in the same boat. They're exactly what you expect and nothing more, which is a shame. This is the kind of game that a sound designer should have a blast with. We should hear sound effects we've never heard before and belive they're real -- instead we're let down with the same engine whine we've always heard, along with the same boring, metallic bumps and grinds. Perhaps the biggest let down, and the one thing that would have benefitted most from some more polish time, are the weapons. They're just not interesting to use, see, or be affected by. A lot of this is because MagForce's weapons are designed to slow down opponents, rather than disable or destroy them. Now, this is a fine design decision. It's just that when I'm launching a missile at somebody, I expect more than to sort of slow them down. I'd rather see energy drain beams and items that increase the weight of enemies, or anything other than missiles and lasers and land mines. The dust thrower is a great power up and exemplifies the kind of thing I'm talking about. It's a cloud of glowing particles that slams your racer to a halt. It sucks to get hit by it, and proper use of it will ensure your victory -- but it's not enough. There need to be other weapons like this to keep the game interesting. Finally, the vehicles just don't feel different enough from one another. This is really weird when you consider the fact that there are only four of them (one with the unfortunate name of "Sinus Alpha"). I would really expect the differences in these four racers to be severe, ala the original WipeOut. Instead, the differences are subtle, and it took some real effort to determine if the vehicles were, in fact, different at all. The Final Word I just realized that "The Bad" section of this review is a bit longer than "The Good". This isn't because there's more bad than good in MagForce Racing -- it's because what is wrong with the game is so close to being right, but can't quite make it. Sometimes being close to good is worse than being really bad, because one's thoughts inevitably turn to what could have been. It's unfortunate that they didn't take the extra time to give MagForce some polish, because it could have been a classic. As it stands, it's merely a mildly above-average entry into a tired genre. Developer: VCC Entertainment Publisher: Crave Genre: Racing Highs: Beautiful graphics, great track design, good control. Lows: Feels rushed out the door, with any number of little niggles. Other: 1-4 players, VMU Compatible (19 blocks), VGA Box Compatible, Race Controller Compatible, Jump Pack Compatible. Media: Gameplay 1 (MPEG) - Racing around Mars. [Big (15.8M)] - [Med (8.5M)] - [Small (1.8M)] Gameplay 2 (MPEG) - Hawaii is one of the more scenic courses. [Big (16.4M)] - [Med (8.8M)] - [Small (1.9M)] Gameplay 3 (MPEG) - Osaka. [Big (15.5M)] - [Med (8.3M)] - [Small (1.8M)] Final Score: (out of a possible 10) Visit this Game's Dreamcast Database Entry Previous Reviews Comments on this review? Mail Feedback.